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Friday, January 28, 2011

Sewing at The Overlook Hotel

Remember Stephen King's "The Shining"? The protagonist, played by Jack Nicholson, goes crazy while snowed in and isolated at The Overlook Hotel. It's beginning to feel a little like The Overlook Hotel around here. After being snowed in for two days, I decided to get rid of 18 back issues of Burda World of Fashion Magazine (Jun. 2004 - Dec. 2005). That decision made me wonder about my sanity.

As I ran out of storage space, I wondered how I was going to continue to store my growing collection of BWOFs. I moved them from the bookcase to the closet, but that was a temporary fix. The issue had to be confronted. The solution came to me in a flash – "It's time to get rid of those old BWOFs" – and I acted on it before I could change my mind.

I don't want to be seen on "Clean House" or those other shows about pathological hoarders. As I removed pages from my index binder and the magazines from the expanding files, I realized how few of the patterns I'd actually sewn. I didn't want to bother selling them on eBay, Craigslist or Pattern Review. That would just be continuing to feed the obsession. It was time for drastic measures. I didn't get rid of any traced patterns from those old issues (yet), just the excess magazines and pattern sheets. It was liberating. I've decided to limit my Burda collection to 5 years so I will still have plenty of old issues to look through. Now that I've done this initial purge, it won't be so difficult the next time.

I know being housebound played a big part in this decision, but I don't regret it. Still, the sooner I get out of the house, the better.

UPDATE!

KoLa RoTh's comment has given me an idea. This offer is perfect for people who have never tried Burda and would like to. I will give away the magazines I planned to throw away. These are not complete issues. They are only the instructions and the pattern sheets – not the glossy magazine section. However, the instructions include technical line drawings of each pattern so you can see what the garments look like. The patterns are old – July 2004 to December 2005. You can request a specific issue, but I may or may not be able to honor your request. I will randomly select an issue while supplies last. This offer is First Come, First Served.

If you can live with all of these stipulations, send me an email with your mailing address. My email is given in the sidebar. As KoLa RoTh said, this is a good opportunity to try Burda Magazine patterns for the first time. The first 18 Burda Newbies who respond get the patterns.

4 comments:

Oh my! I would have taken those off your hands as I can't bring myself to order a subscription. I've read such wonderful reviews on the patterns and magazines, it would have been a good way to try them out.

I don't need any, after all I have my own obsession with Burda, however, I do believe that the Russian index site has photos of all of those issues. http://www.osinka.ru/Zhurnaly/ I have Google translate on my toolbar and I just click translate which helps a lot. BTW what a lovely, idea. If I ever get the urge to purge I'll keep it in mind. But, honestly Lee, you on a hoarder site? I've seen pictures of your studio. Not happening.